advice on new computer

[JoeBloggs]

I am looking at a new home computer. Would like some advice. Take a look and let me know your thoughts and you wil be able to judge my budget!

http://img176.imageshack.us/i/compw.jpg

[Domino]

What, no SSD?

[EduTech]

also, have a look at these guys Custom Built Computers & Custom Gaming PCs - Computer Planet you can get some beasts of here for your kind of budget :-)

James..

[GREED]

All looks good to me, except you are using the devil of a processor... AMD all the way! I got a Phenom II x4 9650 (generously bought by a previous workplace) with 8GB RAM Win7 64bit...

[nephilim]

change the board from Asus to gigabyte and you have a decent machine

[JoeBloggs]

change the board from Asus to gigabyte and you have a decent machine

any reason for this?

[flyinghaggis]

What, no SSD?

Agreed, lose the Velociraptor and get an SSD instead.

[GREED]

How much are SSDs today?

[Arthur]

How much are SSDs today?

Price varies massively depending on capacity and speed. You could get a 40GB Corsair F40 for £83 or a 960GB OCZ IBIS for £2,200. Both SSDs use the same controllers (SandForce's SF-1200), only the IBIS has four of them vs. one on the F40 and 24x more flash.

[localzuk]

You seem to be scrimping on the power supply. I'd say go for a modular power supply, so you don't have cables lying around all over the place, and also one with a decent warranty and quality.

SSD is way out of price range at the moment IMO.

[Arthur]

Agreed, lose the Velociraptor and get an SSD instead.

Definitely. Even the 7,200rpm 2TB WD Caviar Black beats a VelociRaptor. I would go for a 64GB/80GB SSD plus a 1TB/1.5TB HDD if you can afford it. If not, a 1TB Samsung SpinPoint F3 would be an excellent choice.

I'm surprised no one else has mentioned it, but that OcUK Value PSU is a shockingly bad choice, especially considering the PSU is the most important part of a computer - I definitely wouldn't scrimp on this as you will regret it later on. A decent 500w PSU is more than enough for a gaming PC like this. I would look at PSUs made by Corsair, XFX or Seasonic.

Edit. Localzuk beat me to it.

[maestromasada]

SSD is surely the way to do, if you have a school (sch.uk) e-mail address, save yourself a few ponds and get it here: Microsoft Ultimate Steal/ dig it because they also have Win7 64-bit, I got it myself through this for just 30 ponds. They adversise it as upgrade but you can do a clean install

[GREED]

SSD is surely the way to do, if you have a school (sch.uk) e-mail address, save yourself a few ponds and get it here: Microsoft Ultimate Steal/ dig it because they also have Win7 64-bit, I got it myself through this for just 30 ponds. They adversise it as upgrade but you can do a clean install

I'm an Open Uni student so got office 2010 pro plus for £40! Very impressed!

[Arthur]

SSD is way out of price range at the moment IMO.

I reckon even JoeBloggs could afford a decent SSD...

150GB WD VelociRaptor (£107.97) + 1TB Hitachi DeskStar 7k1000.C (£40.98) = £148.95

vs

60GB Corsair F60 (£93.53) + 1TB Samsung HD103SJ (£41.94) = £135.47

or

64GB Crucial RealSSD C300 (£109.39) + 1TB Samsung HD103SJ (£41.94) = £151.33

[Arthur]

JoeBloggs. Just in case you are wondering why I chose the Samsung HDD over the Hitachi HDD. Read this article and you will see why.